A Television Series
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from a novel by A TELEVISION SERIES Created by Alexander Siddig The Synopsis When the body of a brutally murdered young woman is found on a beach in the Arabian Peninsula, detective Osama Ibrahim dreads investigating another unsolvable ‘housemaid murder’. Digging deeper, however, an ambitious lab-tech, Katya Hijazi, discovers that the body is not that of a disobedient servant, but Leila Nawar, a rebellious, aspiring young film maker who has made more than a few enemies with her probing documentaries exploring the seedier underbelly of her society. Aided by her conservatively religious friend, Nayir Sharqi, Katya is determined to find Leila’s killer and solve the mystery of her death. Meanwhile, when American Miriam Walker’s husband disappears only hours after picking her up at the airport, she struggles not to worry. As expatriates living there, run-ins with the Religious Police (the dreaded Mutaween) are not uncommon. When Nayir and Katya show up at Miriam’s apartment asking about her husband’s connections to Leila Nawar, it becomes apparent that Eric may have been involved in something considerably more sinister. By agreeing to help them find her husband and prove his innocence, Miriam puts herself in the dangerous path of Eric’s kidnappers, leading her deep into the desert of The Empty Quarter where Katya, Miriam, Nayir and Osa- ma are tested in the most terrifying ways… The Setting The City of Veils is a place of astonishing contrasts, from the lavish Corniche to the squalid shantytowns; the hollow desert to the gleaming spires of modernity; ancient fishing dhows humbled by super yachts. Women hidden under long black abayas walk five paces behind men in immaculate white thobes - all give way to an army of immigrant workers who emerge like shadows from the netherworld. This is our City. Our Gotham. Policing this dichotomous world is an enigma. Everyone is beholden to someone else, either protected or indebted. Another world exists behind closed doors; vast marble interiors mirror bedouin ancestry. Here women become transformed; alluring and provocative, the very embodiment of their husband’s fantasies and desires. Privacy is an absolute. Indiscretion can be punishable by death, and lurking behind it all are the specters of morality, the Mutaween, whose intervention can be swift, cruel and arbitrary. …a City of Veils where more is hidden than revealed and nothing is what it seems… The Format Series Each episode will cover a different element of a multi-faceted investigation where the characters’ complex personal lives and the many plot twists will make compelling viewing, allowing the audience to become involved and intrigued by the mystery surrounding Leila Nawar’s death. Key Characters Katya Hijazi Katya is a single woman in her early thirties. A status which in this society is looked on with a degree of suspicion. What could possibly be wrong with her? Devastated by a failed engagement, she finds Nayir attractive but his mixed signals of attentiveness and aloofness leave her confused and sometimes angry when they meet. She throws herself into her work as a ‘tech’ in the forensics lab at the police station. As the story unfolds she becomes more involved in full time investigative work with the brilliant young Detective Osama - a dream come true, but a dream which constantly threatens to expose her darkest secret: she feigns marriage. Katya continues to wear her old engagement ring while at work and this deceit riddles her with guilt - a single woman is forbidden to work among men and if she is discovered she will be fired. She feels most comfortable in the presence of her young male cousin Aymen whose goofy antics amuse her. He picks her up most days after work as women are not permitted to drive. A fast learner, Katya soon discovers that she has enormous talent as a detective and her own courage surprises her. Katya is always appropriately dressed but very rarely covers her entire face with plain black cloth or niqab, much to the irritation of Nayir. Miriam Walker Miriam is a smart young American from North Carolina whose recent marriage to Eric has left her without a career and questioning her direction in life. She loves Eric deeply and has given up her old life by following him out to the Arabian Peninsula; a place which subtly frightens her, especially be- cause her husband refuses to live in the relative familiarity and safety of the US compound. Eric, like many US citizens here, works in the security field providing his services to a company called SynTech. Miriam has no time to settle down to her new life as her husband disappears the very day she arrives, whereupon she finds herself at the centre of a complex web of investigations. Miriam hates wearing the traditional clothing, finding it claustrophobic and alien. Nayir Sharqi Nayir, in his forties, loves his solitude. He lives on a boat in the marina and works as a desert guide to the rich. He learned his craft as a child, spending most of his free time roaming the desert with his father, learning its secrets in the company of ancient bedouin tribesmen. He can make the dunes ‘sing’. Deeply religious and scholarly, even in the bleakest circumstances he will find time to pray, but his faith is at odds with the modernised world. He understands technology but has no love for it. He doesn’t understand women and is forced to confront the inevitability of their changing status even as it conflicts with his own understanding of their ‘place’ as mothers and dutiful wives. Nayir falls in love with the liberated Katya in spite of himself but lacks the courage and tools to express this love, and his interaction with her slowly chips away at his mask of impeccable manners. He dreams of the desert when he is nervous, and is liable to conjure apparitions. He is a brilliant strategist in practical matters and becomes invaluable to the police in their investigation although he never works for them officially. Osama Ibrahim Despite his relative inexperience, Osama is already Detective Inspector in the Homicide Division, the object of envious rivalry from the men and secret admiration from the women. Osama is not particularly religious and this openness allows him a degree of operative freedom that other more conservative detectives cannot allow themselves. He will talk to women and even touch them (if need be) in the course of his duty. He is capable of great gentleness and kindness but can be a brutal interrogator, unfazed by the threat of violence. He is married to his childhood sweetheart, Nuha, a classically beautiful woman with an appetite for wearing sexy clothes at home. Like most of the women in this story, she longs for sexual liberation, forcing her to keep a variety of secrets from her husband, a Pandora’s Box which ultimately explodes open. Osama’s previous partner was shot and is recuperating and under investigation for corruption which exposes a serious flaw in Osama’s judgement, pitting his unswerving loyalty against the obvious failings of his partner. Leila Nawar Leila’s body is washed up on beach at the beginning of the story. We get to know her as the jigsaw puzzle of her life is slowly put together. Leila was a dazzling beauty, so beautiful that almost every man she came into contact with wanted her. Totally unorthodox and fiercely intelligent, Leila was always looking for trouble. She worked as a free- lance photo journalist, filming the seedier underbelly of city society and often getting into considerable difficulty as a result. So many people had a motive to kill her that the detectives working the case don’t know where to start. There is a sense that she saw her attractiveness as a curse, that she wanted to prove herself more than the mischievous goddess she was considered to be. Being beautiful for her was easy. Her young cousin Ra’id acted as her protector. Her brother Abdulrahman was her tough conservative guardian, but her diminutive and agoraphobic friend, Farooha was her only true friend. Leila would wear a tatty abaya with no veil. It would often flap open to reveal her jeans and risqué t-shirt underneath. Rarely seen in flash-backs without a camera. Zoë Ferraris (Author) Zoë Ferraris moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. She lived in a conservative Muslim community with her then-husband and his family, a group of Saudi Palestinians. In 2006, she completed her MFA in Fiction at Columbia University. Her debut novel, Finding Nouf (published as Night of the Mi’raj in the UK) is now being published in twenty-five countries. City of Veils was published in August 2010. She currently lives in San Francisco. Alexander Siddig (Executive Producer, role: Nayir) Alexander Siddig was born in Sudan in Northern Africa and trained as an actor at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). Siddig is probably best known for his long running role on Star Trek-Deep Space Nine during the 1990s. Since then he has gone on to have an incredibly successful career with numerous roles in both television and film. His television roles include parts in Fox‘s acclaimed 24 and the ITV sci-fi drama Primeval. Siddig‘s film work includes roles in Ridley Scott‘s Kingdom of Heaven, the George Clooney political thriller Syriana, the drama Miral and more recently a role in the 2010 box office hitClash of the Titans. Ruba Nadda (Producer/Director) Ruba Nadda is a critically and internationally acclaimed Canadian filmmaker.